In the Season 5 episode, "As Long As We're Together," hard times have fallen upon the residents of Walnut Grove. Charles and Caroline decide to leave their Minnesota town and move to the city of Winoka in Dakota Territory. Upon their arrival, a young boy in a cap saunters by Laura in the wagon. When he loses his dime in a hole in the boardwalk, Laura helps him retrieve it with a wad of gum and a shoelace. A friendship is born!
Charles quickly takes a liking to Albert, and upon learning his situation, he makes a deal with him: he will pay him for work if he agrees to attend school with Laura and Carrie. From then on, Albert is an extended part of the family. When Charles and Caroline decide to give Walnut Grove a second chance, Charles is sad to be leaving Albert behind ("There's No Place Like Home"), but with a gentle nudge from Caroline, he asks Albert to join them.
Getting the homestead and the town back in order requires a lot of hard work, and Albert digs right in alongside everyone. He also grows closer to Charles. So close that when Charles spends time helping him raise a calf for the fair, Laura feels like she is losing Pa to the son he always wanted ("Fagin"). Accidentally overhearing that he has caused an issue, Albert runs away. That won't be the only time, but things are soon settled, and the family is back together with Laura and her brother Albert.
Laura, Albert, and their friend Andy Garvey enjoy fun times and antics, often at the expense of the Olesons, like when Laura and Albert alter the type in The Pen and Plow ("Harriet's Happenings") or when they create a fake sea monster to scare Mrs. Oleson and her children ("The Lake Kezia Monster"). They also band together to right wrongs, like when they crafted a plan to scare an older, bigger classmate so that Miss Wilder could stay the teacher in town ("The Werewolf of Walnut Grove"). Albert is also someone Laura can talk to. When she is trying to get a boy to ask her to a dance ("Dance with Me") or when she is struggling to get Almanzo to notice her ("Annabelle"), Albert is a sympathetic ear.
A pivotal moment in Albert's life happens when Miss Wilder assigns a genealogy project ("Family Tree"). Teased by Nellie for not truly being an Ingalls, Albert asks Charles if they can adopt him. When the process uncovers his biological father, Jeremy Quinn wants Albert to help him run his farm. Using his quick wits, Albert devises a last-minute plan that allows him to become a forever Ingalls.
While there are many happy moments for Albert in Walnut Grove, a town tragedy threatens the joy he holds dear. In "May We Make Them Proud," a fire destroys the town's blind school, killing Alice Garvey along with Mary and Adam's newborn son. Albert is devastated to learn that the fire started in the basement, caused by the discarded pipe he and his friend Clay had hidden earlier in the day. Riddled with guilt, Albert runs away. After Charles and Jonathan Garvey conduct a frantic search, they find Albert, tell him they know what started the fire, and head back to Walnut Grove to let the healing begin.
Every adolescent experiences challenges, and Albert is no different. He struggles with being a boy while wanting to prove he's a man ("Men Will Be Boys"); he is beaten for befriending a Jewish craftsman ("The Craftsman"); he falls in love and experiences heartache ("Dearest Albert, I'll Miss You" and "Sylvia"); he feels frustrated when his newly adopted younger brother, James, constantly pesters him and tries to be like him ("Growin' Pains"), and he is critically injured when a drunken Mr. Edwards drives a wagon over him ("A Promise to Keep"). One of the most difficult obstacles he faces, however, is his morphine addiction.
At the beginning of Season 9, Charles moves his family to Burr Oak, Iowa. Albert falls in with a bad crowd, and with the threat of him being sent to a workhouse looming ("Home Again"), Charles brings his son back to Walnut Grove. But Albert is having none of it. A problem with one of Doc Baker's medicine shipments reveals that Albert has a morphine addiction. With the help of Charles, Albert endures withdrawal symptoms and returns to Burr Oak more like his old self.*
Albert's story is one of an independent orphan surviving by his street smarts, who stumbles upon a family that quickly considers him one of their own. While it might be said that Charles and Albert's relationship has the most profound impact on him, Albert and Laura's chance meeting allows all that unfolds afterwards. Through the years, they go from being friends to siblings, from plot hatchers to student and teacher, and most importantly, from occasionally bickering siblings to strong supporters of each other. Therefore, it seems fitting that the last moment we see Albert is him holding hands with his beloved sister, surrounded by the Walnut Grove schoolchildren who peppered their youth.
* "Home Again" and "Look Back to Yesterday" are responsible for one of the most often discussed Little House on the Prairie controversies. At the end of the Season 9 episode "Home Again," Laura's final narration states that in the future, they welcomed Albert back to Walnut Grove as Dr. Albert Ingalls. However, in "Look Back to Yesterday," which aired after the completion of Season 9, Charles is told that Albert is going to die. Some fans believe that Albert miraculously survived and returned to Walnut Grove as a doctor, while others believe that he passed away after the events in "Look Back to Yesterday." What do you think?
More character profiles:
Charles Phillip Ingalls